Geology and assessment of undiscovered oil and gas resources of the Mezen’ Basin Province, 2008

Professional Paper 1824-M
By:  and 
Edited by: Thomas E. Moore and Donald L. Gautier

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Abstract

The Mezen’ Basin Province is situated along the White and Barents Seas in the northeastern part of the Russian Federation. Only a small area of the province, part of one graben, extends slightly north of the Arctic Circle onto the Kanin-Kola monocline, where it converges with the Timan-Varanger deformed belt and the Fennoscandian shield.

The main petroleum potential in the Mezen’ Basin Province is associated with grabens in which clastic Proterozoic source and reservoir rocks are present. One Proterozoic-Paleozoic Composite Total Petroleum System was defined, although Paleozoic and younger strata are too thin (<1–2 km) for significant petroleum accumulation. The total thickness of the sedimentary interval is <6 km. The Northwest Mezen’ Basin Assessment Unit was delineated north of the Arctic Circle. Proterozoic (Riphean) mudstone is organic rich and thermally mature, providing a source for petroleum; younger Proterozoic (Vendian) rocks are also organic rich but thermally immature (Kuz’min, 2005). Because of its limited extent, the potential for an oil or gas field exceeding the minimum size of 50 million barrels of oil equivalent (MMBOE) within the small graben north of the Arctic Circle is remote (assessment-unit probability, 0.005). Therefore, the Mezen’ Basin Province was not quantitatively assessed.

Suggested Citation

Klett, T.R., and Pitman, J.K., 2018, Geology and assessment of undiscovered oil and gas resources of the Mezen’ Basin Province, 2008, chap. M of Moore, T.E., and Gautier, D.L., eds., The 2008 Circum-Arctic Resource Appraisal: U.S. Geological Survey Professional Paper 1824, 1 p., https://doi.org/10.3133/pp1824M.

ISSN: 2330-7102 (online)

Publication type Report
Publication Subtype USGS Numbered Series
Title Geology and assessment of undiscovered oil and gas resources of the Mezen’ Basin Province, 2008
Series title Professional Paper
Series number 1824
Chapter M
DOI 10.3133/pp1824M
Year Published 2018
Language English
Publisher U.S. Geological Survey
Publisher location Reston, VA
Contributing office(s) Energy Resources Program
Description Report: vi, 1 p.
Country Russia
Other Geospatial Mezen’ Basin Province
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